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Sure thing, I will. Thanks again for your previous comments. I’ll do my best to include them in the post.

by ackreq 1y ago

jibal 1y ago
Also see https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc2441 https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc2441 "One can also read that Jon was the editor of the RFC, and may think that Jon checked only the grammar or the format of the RFCs. Nothing could be further from the truth, not that he did not check it, but in addition, being the corporate memory, Jon had indicated many times to authors that earlier work had treated the same subject, and that their work would be improved by learning about that earlier work." ... " Our foundation and infrastructure of standards was the secret weapon that won the war. Jon created it, using the RFC mechanism initiated by Steve Crocker. It was Jon who immediately realized their importance, and the need for someone to act as the curator, and volunteered. The lightning speed with which Microsoft joined the Internet was not possible without the quality of the existing standards that were so well documented. During the transition from ARPA, through the NSF, to the commercial world there was a point in which the trivial funding required for the smooth operation of editing and distributing the RFCs was in doubt. At that time the prospect of not having funds to run this operation was very real. Finally the problem was solved and the process suffered no interruption. What most of the involved agencies and managers did not know is that there was never a danger of any interruption. Jon would have done it even with no external funding. If they did not pay him to do it, he would have paid them to let him do it. For him it was not a job, it was labor of love." " When fancy formatting creeped into the Internet community, Jon resisted the temptation to allow fancy formats for RFCs. Instead, he insisted on them being in ASCII, easy to e-mail, guaranteed to be readable anywhere in the world. The instant availability and usability of RFCs was much more important to him than how fancy they looked."
- ekr____ 1y ago
  I think there's a fair argument to be made that this was a bad decision on Postel's part, because it made it harder to have good diagrams as well as mathematical formula, and of course it also meant that we couldn't render many people's names correctly. In any case, RFCs are now published in HTML and allow non-ASCII characters.
- ackreq 1y ago
  I’ve updated the post accordingly and mentioned more names, Jibal. I also referenced our conversation here, thanks again. The revised post should be visible now, though sometimes clearing cookies helps if it doesn’t show up right away

Sure thing, I will. Thanks again for your previous comments. I’ll do my best to include them in the post.

by ackreq 1y ago

Sure thing, I will. Thanks again for your previous comments. I’ll do my best to include them in the post.

Also see https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc2441 https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc2441 "One can also read that Jon was the editor of the RFC, and may think that Jon checked only the grammar or the format of the RFCs. Nothing could be further from the truth, not that he did not check it, but in addition, being the corporate memory, Jon had indicated many times to authors that earlier work had treated the same subject, and that their work would be improved by learning about that earlier work." ... " Our foundation and infrastructure of standards was the secret weapon that won the war. Jon created it, using the RFC mechanism initiated by Steve Crocker. It was Jon who immediately realized their importance, and the need for someone to act as the curator, and volunteered. The lightning speed with which Microsoft joined the Internet was not possible without the quality of the existing standards that were so well documented. During the transition from ARPA, through the NSF, to the commercial world there was a point in which the trivial funding required for the smooth operation of editing and distributing the RFCs was in doubt. At that time the prospect of not having funds to run this operation was very real. Finally the problem was solved and the process suffered no interruption. What most of the involved agencies and managers did not know is that there was never a danger of any interruption. Jon would have done it even with no external funding. If they did not pay him to do it, he would have paid them to let him do it. For him it was not a job, it was labor of love." " When fancy formatting creeped into the Internet community, Jon resisted the temptation to allow fancy formats for RFCs. Instead, he insisted on them being in ASCII, easy to e-mail, guaranteed to be readable anywhere in the world. The instant availability and usability of RFCs was much more important to him than how fancy they looked."

ekr____ 1y ago
I think there's a fair argument to be made that this was a bad decision on Postel's part, because it made it harder to have good diagrams as well as mathematical formula, and of course it also meant that we couldn't render many people's names correctly. In any case, RFCs are now published in HTML and allow non-ASCII characters.
ackreq 1y ago
I’ve updated the post accordingly and mentioned more names, Jibal. I also referenced our conversation here, thanks again. The revised post should be visible now, though sometimes clearing cookies helps if it doesn’t show up right away